Editor’s Note: I recently re-arranged my spice cupboard to find new ways to spruce up my salads and vegetable dishes. Sophie goes way beyond spices with 15 tips to take vegetarian cooking to a tastier level.

One of the lingering misconceptions about vegetarian food is that it is boring. This wide-spread belief stems from the unappetizing stodge that some hippies cooked in the 70s. The veggie food bad rap is fortunately disappearing and we are living an exciting vegetarian revolution with delicious recipes published on the web every day.

Now that I mostly cook vegetarian, I realize how it is far more creative than the bog standard meat-two-vegs-one-carb dish. It does require more effort but it’s more satisfying in many ways.

Here are a few tricks that I use to keep my vegetarian food interesting and tasty:

1. A few drops of green gold.

Sprinkle a dash of “the good olive oil” before serving; it brings the flavors together. This is a trick I learned from the Spanish. You can have normal quality olive oil for everyday cooking but have a bottle of the good one for “special occasions.” Alternatively, you can add a small chunk of butter; this, I learned from being French!

2. A sexy spice rack.

Have a good selection of spices in your cupboard. Learn how to combine spices to ingredients; carrots and cumin are a Moroccan match made in heaven, Spanish smoked paprika can jazz up an otherwise bland veggie rice. Caraway seeds are great in homemade coleslaw. Nutmeg goes well in vegetable lasagne.

3. Lemon or lime on the side.

Citruses are a natural taste enhancer and a good way to add a zest of vitamin C in your diet. For example, you can garnish your veggie rices or quinoa pilaffs with a lemon slice; and your Thai or Vietnamese soups and chilli sin carne with lime.

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Comments (3)

Delicious vegan food is one reason why the number of vegans has doubled in less than 3 years. Here’s a video to help everyone understand why so many people are making this life affirming choice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKr4HZ7ukSE

This article seems like its starting premise is that vegetarian and vegan meals are inherently bland/boring/tasteless, which is absurd. Vegetables taste good (often best) straight from the plant. Flavor adjustments/enhancements as part of meal preparation are purely a matter of individual taste.